A historical legal thriller centered on the key personalities who fought the “War of the Currents”—Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Westinghouse’s young, talented lawyer, Paul Cravath. It’s John Grisham meets The Alienist.

New York, 1888. The miracle of electric light is in its infancy, and untold glory (and untold riches) await the man who can power the nation with this new technology. Thomas Edison, “the wizard of Menlo Park,” has won the race to the patent office and is now suing his only remaining rival, George Westinghouse, for infringement for the unheard of sum of a billion dollars. To defend himself, Westinghouse makes a surprising choice in his attorney: he hires an untested twenty-six year-old fresh out of Columbia Law School named Paul Cravath.

The task facing Cravath is beyond daunting—Edison quickly shows himself an implacable and crafty opponent who will lie, cheat, and betray (and worse) in order to win. To defeat Thomas Edison seems impossible, yet this young, unknown attorney shares with his famous opponent a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it? Paul, a man of principle, starts making compromises he never imagined. And as he takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.

Quotes & Awards

“As narrated by Johnathan McClain, [this] is the best kind of can’t-turn-it-off listen…McClain, whose Cravath has an enthusiastic mid-American persona, creates equally imaginative vocal portraits of Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla and believably colors several different women. Nicely marrying his pace and tone to each scene, and offering an easy narrative voice, McClain creates a superb audio experience. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

AudioFile

“A riveting historical novel that is part legal thriller, part techno-suspense…Hugely entertaining.”

“Crafts a compelling narrative out of Cravath’s cunning legal maneuvers and Tesla’s world-changing tinkering, while a story line on opera singer Agnes Huntington has the mysterious glamour of The Great Gatsby…He conjures Gilded Age New York City so vividly, it feels like only yesterday.”

Other Titles by Graham Moore:

About the Author

Graham Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian and the Academy Award–winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game, which also won a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Moore was born in Chicago, received a BA in religious history from Columbia University, and now lives in Los Angeles.

About the Narrator

Johnathan McClain is an American actor, voice-over talent, and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He pursued stage acting in New York for a number of years and has appeared in many television series, including Law & Order: SVU, Medium, Scoundrels, and CSI: Miami. He also has several narration credits, including Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series and Jeremy Logan novels by Lincoln Child.

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